401: What To Do In Your First Year Of Business Whether You Are Starting A Business Or Side Hustle, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Freelancer, Accountant, Bookkeeper, VA, Owner
- 4 days ago
- 12 min read
401: What To Do In Your First Year Of Business Whether You Are Starting A Business Or Side Hustle, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Freelancer, Accountant, Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant, Business Owner, Or Self-Employed
You made the leap; you took the jump, or you stepped off the cliff. No matter how you say it, you are now invested as an entrepreneur and have your very own business. These are exciting times for you. You are finally able to make the impact you have waited so long to make. It is your dream come true, but now that you are there, what can you do to make sure you continue to enjoy your new venture? So many times, you will find a business owner who started their business and loved it, but soon found themselves frustrated with the path it was leading them down. When you start your own business, you have many ideas and goals. You have a vision of where you want your business to go. You have goals for how your business will influence your personal life, but if you are not careful about how you run your business, you may quickly find your business is instead running you, and your life. Today I am going to dive into a few of the best tips to surviving your first year as a business owner. These tips are not only essential for a new business owner in their first year of business, but they are very important to follow through on each and every year of owning your business. By following these tips, you will continue to remain in control of your business. You will not only survive your first year, but you will thrive in years to come. In today’s episode, I am going to help you brace yourself and your small business for any curveballs that may be coming your way. We know owning a business can consume a lot of your time and I’m going to walk you through some best practices for your relationships, both personal and business. If you not only want to survive your first years in business as a solopreneur, entrepreneur, small business owner, virtual online bookkeeper, virtual assistant, or you are just starting to think about starting a small business, you don’t want to miss this episode to make sure you are able to maintain a healthy and positive personal life in addition to enjoying all the success you will obtain from owning your small business…
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Show Notes:
You made the leap; you took the jump, or you stepped off the cliff. No matter how you say it, you are now invested as an entrepreneur and have your very own business. These are exciting times for you. You are finally able to make the impact you have waited so long to make. It is your dream come true, but now that you are there, what can you do to make sure you continue to enjoy your new venture? So many times, you will find a business owner who started their business and loved it, but soon found themselves frustrated with the path it was leading them down. When you start your own business, you have many ideas and goals. You have a vision of where you want your business to go. You have goals for how your business will influence your personal life, but if you are not careful about how you run your business, you may quickly find your business is instead running you, and your life. Today I am going to dive into a few of the best tips to surviving your first year as a business owner. These tips are not only essential for a new business owner in their first year of business, but they are very important to follow through on each and every year of owning your business. By following these tips, you will continue to remain in control of your business. You will not only survive your first year, but you will thrive in years to come. In today’s episode, I am going to help you brace yourself and your small business for any curveballs that may be coming your way. We know owning a business can consume a lot of your time and I’m going to walk you through some best practices for your relationships, both personal and business. If you not only want to survive your first years in business as a solopreneur, entrepreneur, small business owner, virtual online bookkeeper, virtual assistant, or you are just starting to think about starting a small business, you don’t want to miss this episode to make sure you are able to maintain a healthy and positive personal life in addition to enjoying all the success you will obtain from owning your small business…
Welcome Back…Congratulations on being an entrepreneur! This is an exciting time in your life. When you’ve made the decision to follow your passion in life and start your own business you start to gain a deep understanding of all the comments you’ve heard other business owners make about running their businesses. This insight is great, and you are taking it all in, but you want to make sure you not only survive this first year in business, but you want it to thrive this year and all the years to follow. That’s exactly what I am going to talk about today. I want you to be aware of what may happen to you and your business in these early years and what you can do to be prepared for these moments to come, or even better yet, be proactive so if you anticipate some of these challenges, you can turn things around before they reach a point where they could become a problem.
First, make sure you have a business plan and as well as a plan to execute it. When you take the time to develop your business plan, you are thinking clearly and taking many variables into consideration. Your business plan is there to help guide you in your decisions so that you can follow through on your vision for the business as well as the problem you are solving for your customers. Along with your business plan, make sure that you put your finances as a top priority. Set up a budget and create the goals you want your business to reach. If you don’t feel like you have a good handle on the financial aspect of your small business, don’t be afraid to hire someone to help you with this. It is extremely important to make sure you are keeping track of all your money coming in and going out of your business and if you don’t enjoy or understand this, it would be in your best interest to find a bookkeeper to help ensure you have accurate and timely reports to base your business decisions on, as well as the appropriate information to file your tax returns. Make sure you are keeping your costs low and when possible, reinvest back into your business rather than pulling all of your money out of your business. You will also want to make sure you have a backup plan for funding your business just in case your cash flow starts to run a little short. Having this plan in advance will save you many stressful nights and headaches in the future.
It probably goes without saying that when you have your own business, you need to be disciplined and you know you’re going to need to be prepared to work hard. When you are just getting your business started, you are not only running your business, but you are doing all the things needed to get everything within your business set up. There will be times when you are starting your business that you’ll find yourself working on your business many more hours than you would have been working at a job for an employer. Many of these tasks won’t need your attention as much in the future once they have been setup or implemented, but you can count on some long days and possibly nights as well. Knowing you are going to be working hard, you want to be sure you are staying as healthy as you can. Try to get enough sleep, eat right and set up a regular exercise plan you can stick to. When you are healthy, you will be able to withstand the long hours your business may need without draining yourself down and even causing your health to be at risk. Stress can be a big player when you own your own business and eating right and exercising regularly will help to keep your stress under control.
Speaking of long hours, you want to make sure you are being selective about how you spend all your valuable hours. You can ask any business owner if they are busy, and I’m sure you’ll hear yes, every time. The key here isn’t to make sure you are always busy. You want to make sure you are being productive with your time. Only spend time of tasks that will help move your business forward and succeed. Make sure when you agree to do something that it is in alignment with your business plan and your goals. If it isn’t, it is OK to say no or add it to your tasks as a lower priority to work on when you have additional time. Stay focused on where you want your business to go. It is easy to drift off your main path, especially if you start to doubt yourself, your business ideas or your success. When you stay focused on your original business goals, you will be more successful.
If you’re an accountant or high-stress professional, you want to start enjoying your life more, both at work and at home. You’ve likely built a successful career, but at what cost? The problem is you’re so buried in deadlines and to-do lists, there’s no time or energy left for the things that really matter. You’re great at managing clients, deadlines, and numbers, but your own stress, time, and well-being, well, they always seem to come last. The constant pressure leads to burnout, guilt, and feeling like no matter how much you do, it’s never enough. I see this all the time. As a CPA with over 20 years of experience and a Certified Coach, I’ve helped high-achieving professionals like you go from stress and burnout to a more integrated and balanced lifestyle using The RE*INVENTION™ Process. This process helps you reduce stress, reclaim your time, and finally build a healthier, happier, more balanced lifestyle without sacrificing your success. The truth is, stress doesn’t go away on its own, and eventually, the cost isn’t just exhaustion; it’s your health, your relationships, and your love for the work you once enjoyed. If you’re ready to build a life you don’t need a vacation from, it’s easy to get started. First, schedule your Complimentary Stress Audit & Clarity Session, where in just one session, I’ll help you pinpoint what’s really draining your time and energy, create a personalized action plan to help you simplify your life, reclaim your time, and increase your productivity so that you start living with more energy, focus, and freedom. You don’t have to keep doing this alone. I can help you customize a plan to stop the overwhelm and start enjoying your life again. Go to www.FinancialAdventure.com, click on the Work With Me button, and book your free session today. Let this be the moment you stop just surviving and start living with more control and finally enjoy a more integrated and balanced lifestyle again. In the meantime, check out all the other resources and solutions on my website that you can immediately apply to your life so you can stop being stressed out and feeling like you're never doing enough, and instead breathe a sigh of relief at the end of the day, knowing you've accomplished enough and can enjoy your life more.
It will be important for you to make sure you are still maintaining your personal relationships. When you find yourself working more and more hours, your personal relationships can and will start to deteriorate if you don’t approach them cautiously. Your family and friends should be one of your priorities as you work toward reaching your small business goals. It is important to have conversations with them so that everyone fully understands the enormous task of starting a small business. The stress that the business may be putting on you could be impounded by additional stressful situations from your family and friends if you are not careful. When you are proactive and talk to your support system and let them know how they can help, this will reduce those stressful situations as well as create a way for them to help you. Even though they will know your time may be limited with them, make sure you take the time to plan specific times in your schedule to spend with them. Set aside time for a date night with your spouse, create time for play with your children, or even have friend’s nights out. By taking time away from your business, you will have a refreshed mind and both you and your business will benefit from this…not to mention how much your family and friends will enjoy spending time with you. You want to make sure that your family and friends are there when you need them the most, so make sure you are there for them when and if they need you as well.
Take into consideration your customer’s needs and pay attention to all the feedback they give you. You want to listen to what your customers have to say. Not only about the products or services they are currently receiving from you, but you want to continuously ask them for their feedback. This feedback will be valuable for you to continue with the excellent service you are providing them or will help you pivot to ensure their needs are being met. You don’t want to have a business where you are never meeting your customer’s needs. The fastest road to success in your small business will be to listen to your customers and adapt to what they are looking for.
As a small business owner, you are naturally a risk taker. You take the leap, start your own business all while knowing you could fail. I want you to look at any failures you experience and take advantage of learning from them. These failures could be just what you need to pivot or revamp your business and turn it into the success you are looking for. Many small business owners see failure as defeat, but you are going to look deep into the reasons why you may have faced this failure and find the positive aspect of it. There are many successful business owners who have failed at something and turned it around to be an even bigger success than they could have dreamed possible. So, the next time you find yourself upset or defeated, look hard at what you are seeing as a failure and find the positive outcome. Another thing to consider when you have a small business is the fear of success. This may sound odd and how could someone actually be afraid of succeeding, but there are some business owners out there that hold themselves back from succeeding out of fear. Fear of the unknown or being successful can sometimes cause you to actually self-sabotage your future success. Believe it or not, you could be standing in the way of your own success. If you find yourself in this position, ask yourself why. Find out what success actually looks like to you and think about what will happen when you are successful. Take time to imagine yourself as having already achieved that success. Make sure you are taking steps in your business to become successful and if you find you are holding yourself back, make sure you are addressing those issues. You work hard and you deserve to be successful.
Lastly, I want to mention how important it is to have a mentor in your small business. Your mentor may change as your business grows, but you should always have someone who has either already been in your shoes or has the experience you are lacking in your business. A mentor will be there to help you design a strategy to move your business forward and avoid costly mistakes. They will be there to hold you accountable for meeting your goals and can provide the resources you are looking for. Make sure you utilize a mentor throughout your business. Continue to grow your business and take time to enjoy the process of your business growing in each and every stage you are in. After all, this is the reason you started your business in the first place, right?
And, you know I’m going to ask…what’s at least one thing you will take away from this episode that will help your business succeed and grow your bottom line? If you want accountability or support, visit www.FinancialAdventure.com. You’ll find links to join our private Facebook community, connect with me on LinkedIn, and discover more free resources to help you reduce stress, boost productivity, and build a business and life you truly enjoy. I’ll see you there.
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